Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, has praised Iran for its latest involvement in the “Iraqi-led” Tikrit offensive, launched on March 2, 2015, to reclaim the city from Islamic State group militants.

He described Iran's influence 'in' and 'on' Iraq as 'positive'.

As US secretary of State, John Kerry, reassured global audiences that the operation “was put together... formulated...[and]...executed by the Iraqis”, an eye witness account brings to life a very different story.

According to ‘Yaqeen Private Net’ news agency, ISIS’s takeover of Tikrit, hometown of former President Saddam Hussein, has, as many Iraqis feel, presented to Iran a golden opportunity to ‘pounce’ and further undermine the sovereignty of the nation of Iraq.

Local sources have reported dozens of Iranian military vehicles crossing the border of Manfath, Diyala province. A local source from Yaqeen is said to have spotted a convoy consisting of an estimated sixty tanks and vehicles, en route towards Saladin, as tanks and vehicles trickled through the Manfath border crossing in clusters.

​The convoy as the source told, mainly included T-62 and T-72 tanks, believed to be carrying cannons and portable rockets.

The local source additionally stated that Iranian backed Shi’i militias in Iraq had not only provided the convoy an entry point, they had in fact facilitated the entire operation from the minute that the convoy arrived into the Iraqi city of Khanaqi, bordering Iran.